Now, when #RianJohnson was first hired to direct the upcoming #StarWars8, there was widespread celebration among fans of intelligent, morally-complex sci-fi. After all, Johnson has long since proven himself to be a capable facilitator of big ideas, with the likes of Brick, The Brothers Bloom and Looper all showcasing the exact sort of directorial talent that ought to be let loose on a major #StarWars sequel.

Indeed, many fans hoped that Johnson's take on the franchise would err a little more in the direction of the "dark side" than its immediate predecessor, #StarWarsEpisode7, as a result of Johnson's influence. And, back in September, those hopes were firmly exacerbated by #KyloRen himself, #AdamDriver, who seemed to reveal in an interview that Episode 8 would have a distinctly different tone, much like the beloved #EmpireStrikesBack. As he told Collider at the time:

"It’s similar to how 'The Empire Strikes Back' has a different tone."

Which, of course, we then collectively took to mean that it would be far darker than Episode 7, especially since Oscar Isaac had teased pretty much that exact same thing a few months earlier. As it turns out, though...

Adam Driver Seems Pretty Sure Episode 8 Won't Be As Dark As We're Now Insisting It Will

[Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens/Lucasfilm]

Indeed, as he recently pointed out to Vanity Fair, his original comments were largely misinterpreted (not to say completely misread), and don't accurately reflect his actual thinking on the matter. When asked whether he thought his previous comments would be taken so seriously by the internet at large, then, Driver took the chance to clarify them:

"No, no, and that’s not even what I said. What I said was the tone of it was different, I didn’t say that it was gonna be in the vein of [it]—I was using it as an example, so poor example... Next time I should say — I’m trying to think of another sequel to a movie that’s good. When I read the script, it was not what I expected, in the best of ways."

[Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens/Lucasfilm]

Which, of course, is pretty much exactly what he said the first time out. After all, the much-shared quote up above about the movie having "a different tone" was actually far more extensive than the snippet up there suggests. In fact, his full statement (having been asked about the Episode 8 script) was this:

"It’s great. It’s similar to how 'The Empire Strikes Back' has a different tone. For that people always go 'oooh, it’s dark,' but I don’t know that it necessarily is. It’s just different in tone in a way that I think is great and necessary but also very clear. [Johnson] trusts [that] his audience is ready for nuance and ambiguity. He’s not dumbing anything down for someone and that’s really fun to play."

Or, in other words? We're apparently just collectively screwing with Adam Driver now, and turning his every word around on him in order to produce the information we want to hear. So, if he ends up going method and turning into Kylo Ren in real life, you know who to blame: All of us.

Or, y'know, Snoke.

FINE, we'll blame Snoke. Everyone has their story straight? If Adam Driver asks, it wasn't all of us who inexplicably decided to assume that he was saying the exact opposite of what he actually said. It was Snoke. It was always Snoke.

Want something Episode 8-related to read while you work on your alibi, though? Never fear (it leads to the dark side, remember), we've got you covered right here.

In the meantime, what do you think? Will we ultimately turn Adam Driver to the dark side, or will a sinister Sith-like figure do it first? Let us know below!